Bringing the crack since December 2003

Empress #1

"Since 1980 every director has tried to be Ridley Scott. Flash Gordon was the end of one thing and Alien the beginning of another. It’s very interesting because we always think Star Wars shifted cinema, but in reality it was Alien and maybe even moreso with Blade Runner. The latter wasn’t a financial hit like Star Wars, but it sparked something in directors and writers. As much as I love it, Empress is the antithesis of dystopian sci-fi."

- Mark Millar

"The bad guy in this, Morax, rules ancient Earth and he utterly adores his wife and children. He’s not abusive to them in any way and actually has this strong streak of morality when it comes to his family and doing the right thing. The idea is more than she’s now in her late thirties and realises that all the things he does which keeps them in their incredible lifestyle is just unforgivable and she realises that by carving out what she thinks was a nice future for her kids she’s actually doomed them to inherit this guy’s appalling mantle. Her son is a lovely, gentle kid and she’s especially worried about how he’d cope, but the big thing is that she just wants them to have a normal life. It’s a bit like Carmella Soprano in that when she was nineteen this all seemed very glamorous, but the reality of it all has been growing on her and as she hits her late thirties she comes up with a plan."

Credit where it's due, flying your small ship THROUGH the big ship because you want to use their warp drive is a pretty nifty idea. (It presumes you haven't disabled anything important en route, but it's nifty nonetheless)

Mark Millar is a real cool writer. All of his comics feel like movies, which is a vibe I always get from them. I like how badass the writing is. Also, like how the characters are able to do things in a way nobody predicted or thought of beforehand.

I'm always sort of torn on Millar's writing because it feels like he wants to tear down certain tropes with his darker stuff--Kick-Ass being a realistic take on kid/teen superheroes, Wanted being a deconstruction of the "badass super-assassin"--but then movies tend to play all that stuff straight? And then arguably he veers into "do not do this cool thing" territory and playing some of that stuff straight himself, and...

Am I the only one that's enjoyed Millar's more recent work? Starting roughly around Superior, I find I've enjoyed his other stuff. Jupiter's Circle and Jupiter's Legacy, Starlight, Huck are all ones I surprisingly enjoyed. I was wary to read them, so borrowed them out from the library and wound up not regretting it.

Mind you, there are still some moments where he's still trying to "shock" the audience. One particularly excessively gory scene in Jupiter's Legacy, for example. But I enjoyed everything else in that series.

I am more okay with the "Shock" stuff in those works than, say, an entire story that is nothing but "Shock".

As I often say, the odd thing that i find about Mark Millar is that, while he may make stuff like Ultimates, or Kick-ass. IE, darker, seemingly more "realistic" takes on superheroics than classic superhero style stories... he is not cynical about said superhero stories. Millar is never going to write a story were he mercilessly mocks Superman and says "look, this is what would happen if superheroes REALLY existed!".

He will write stories in which jackasses try to be superheroes, but not stories in which superheroes are jackasses. (Civil War and maybe Ultimates being the big exception)

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